The Mid-Atlantic and northeastern U.S. were not the only areas dealing with holiday snowfall.

Ireland [usually] enjoys a "temperate ocean climate" (Cfb) based on the Koopen climate classification system. Such climates normally enjoy cool, cloud-covered summers and mild winters. Ireland's climate is also [usually] moderated by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, which flows off the western shore. Snow commonly falls only in the highest elevations; dustings may occur elsewhere a few times each year. Significant accumulations anywhere in the country are rare.

The winter of 2009-2010 was unusually cold and snowy. Called "The Big Freeze" by the British media, it brought widespread transportation problems, school closings, power failures and twenty five deaths. A low of -22.3°C (-8.1°F) was recorded on January 8, 2010, making it the coldest winter since 1978/79.

Proof that Manhattan was once buried underneath an Ice Age glacier has been uncovered at Ground Zero.

Crews excavating the site of the destroyed World Trade Centre this summer have uncovered a spectacular underground landscape carved into the bedrock by glaciers about 20,000 years ago.

A 40-foot 'pothole' is the most arresting feature. However reports described a world of rocky colour basking in the New York sun for the first time in thousands of years: underground cliffs, layers of steel-gray bedrock, and thousands of cobblestones in a muted rainbow of reds and purples and greens - as smooth as those found by the sea.

'There are areas in local parks that have small vertical potholes exposed," Cheryl J. Moss, the senior geologist at Mueser Rutledge, told The New York Times.

"But I'm not aware of anything in the city with a whole, self-contained depression on this scale."

With an Ice Age comes abrupt change, and with change comes death - sometimes death on a massive scale.

More of the world's top scientists in the disciplines of geology, ecology, meteorology, astrophysics, and heliology [pdf list] are predicting that the two major cooling cycles are converging - the short term and long term Ice Ages - and Earth has just entered the beginnings of the dangerous cooling.

Both cooling periods are due and both seem to have started just as the sun's about to reach its solar maximum. When the sun goes quiet after 2012, it's expected to stay quiet for at least the next 30 to 50 years. During that time, the sun will generate significantly less heat and the planets - including Earth - will cool rapidly.

Mass migrations and famines

Now other scientists - including John L. Casey, the Director of the Space and Science Research Center - are warning that people in the coming decades are facing food and fuel shortages.

Some northern countries will be abandoned as the ice marches down from the Arctic; energy production will be interrupted; and shortened growing periods in the Northern Hemisphere will precipitate mass migrations, famines, food riots, regional conflicts and a loss of human life that could be measured on an apocalyptic scale.

Lord Stirling gives the definitive low-down on how the Gulf Oil tragedy has affected the weather worldwide, the Jet stream 5 to 7 miles above the Sea is driven by the waters (the Gulf Stream) below, this has caused (or exacerbated) freak weather in Russia, and South and North America.

The outlook is not good, with the possibility of cold soil lasting until May or June instead of Jan or Feb, crop failures can be expected. In short, we are at the front edge of an oncoming Ice-age.

Thank the hubris and unfettered greed of the corporate and government psychopaths. The death knell for a large part of life on earth has sounded.

Washington - A band of frigid weather snaking its way up the East Coast on Sunday threatened to bring blizzards and a foot of snow to New York City and New England, while several states made emergency declarations as the storm caused crashes on slick roads.

Airlines grounded hundreds of flights Sunday along the Northeast corridor in anticipation of the storm, affecting major airports including New York's JFK and Newark. Airlines said more cancellations were likely as the storm progressed. Travel misery began a day earlier in parts of the South, where a rare white Christmas came with reports of dozens of car crashes.

In Washington transportation officials pretreated roads and readied 200 salt trucks, plows and other pieces of equipment to fight the 6 inches or more expected to fall in the Mid-Atlantic region.

The Northeast is expected to get the brunt of the storm. Forecasters issued a blizzard warning for New York City for Sunday and Monday, with a forecast of 11 to 16 inches of snow and strong winds that will reduce visibility to near zero at times. A blizzard warning was also in effect for Rhode Island and most of eastern Massachusetts including Boston, with forecasters predicting 15 to 20 inches of snow. A blizzard warning is issued when snow is accompanied by sustained winds or gusts over 35 mph.

As much as 18 inches could fall on the New Jersey shore with wind gusts over 40 mph.

London - Renowned climate scientist predicts a new ice age is on the way!

Scientists, climatologists and the mayor of London are all in agreement - the cold snap in Europe is going to get worse, much worse. A new ice age is underway.

According to Piers Corbyn, a British scientist who gets the climate right about 85 per cent of the time, were absolutely entering a new ice age. Serious business people - notably in farming - are starting to invest in his forecasts.

Corbyn, an astrophysicist, gets it right again and again.

In November, Corbyn said it would be the coldest for 100 years. He was correct. He predicted a snowy December for Europe, and he put his own money on a white Christmas for most of the U.S. - something that no one, not even AccuWeather had predicted.

How does he do it?

He looks at the flow of particles from the Sun, and how they interact with the upper atmosphere, especially air currents such as the jet stream, and he looks at how the Moon and other factors influence those streaming particles.

Well, folks, it's tea-time on Sunday and for anyone involved in keeping people moving it has been a hell of a weekend. Thousands have had their journeys wrecked, tens of thousands have been delayed getting away for Christmas; and for those Londoners who feel aggrieved by the performance of any part of our transport services, I can only say that we are doing our level best.

Almost the entire Tube system was running on Sunday and we would have done even better if it had not been for a suicide on the Northern Line, and the temporary stoppage that these tragedies entail. Of London's 700 bus services, only 50 were on diversion, mainly in the hillier areas. On Saturday, we managed to keep the West End plentifully supplied with customers, and retailers reported excellent takings on what is one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
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We have kept the Transport for London road network open throughout all this. We have about 90,000 tons of grit in stock, and the gritters were out all night to deal with this morning's rush. And yet we have to face the reality of the position across the country.

It is no use my saying that London Underground and bus networks are performing relatively well - touch wood - when Heathrow, our major international airport, is still effectively closed two days after the last heavy snowfall; when substantial parts of our national rail network are still struggling; when there are abandoned cars to be seen on hard shoulders all over the country; and when yet more snow is expected today, especially in the north.

An increased frequency in extreme weather events, a cooling North Atlantic, and growing Arctic sea ice were viewed as signs of climate change. The odds of a warmer climate in the future, according to one scientist, were "at best 1 in 10,000″ (see below). That's what Der Spiegel wrote about in a 3700-word article back in 1974, warning the world of a coming ice age.

In that issue Der Spiegel described a series of "weather extremes" occurring all over the world, claiming they were unmistakable signs of a climate change to cooling: deluges of rain in West Germany, severe thunderstorms that uprooted trees and blew off roofs in Berlin, the worst storm in 100 years devastating much of Lower Saxony, hurricane Agnes inflicting 3 billion dollars in damage, floods in Japan and Peru, temperatures in Argentina, India and South Africa dropping to their lowest levels in 300 years.

Comment: Judging from current weather conditions in the UK and US as well as the disruption to the Gulf of Mexico loop current, Der Spiegel may still be proven correct.